Fresno Housing Authority CEO addresses housing myths, concerns

Fresno Housing Authority CEO Preston Prince discusses how his agency strives to overcome neighborhood concerns about new public housing projects and misconceptions about people who live in public housing.
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Fresno Housing Authority CEO Preston Prince discusses how his agency strives to overcome neighborhood concerns about new public housing projects and misconceptions about people who live in public housing.
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Fresno County’s population steadily ticked upward in 2018, with that growth attributed in part to expanded housing and a rising prison population.

There are now approximately 1.018 million residents of Fresno County, according to a report released Wednesday by the California Department of Finance. That marks a 1.1 percent increase from the previous year.

Clovis recorded the steepest growth in the county. It was also one of the fastest-growing cities in the state, adding 3,108 residents to notch a 2.7 percent growth rate. The city has 117,003 residents.

Clovis’ growth largely came from new home construction. The city added 945 housing units last year, the sixth most in the state.

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The city of Fresno added residents, too. At 536,683 people, the population increased approximately 1 percent in 2018, according to the report. Fresno also came in eighth place statewide for housing growth, with 882 housing units added last year.

While the state prison population, which frequently accounts for a significant portion of the population in the rural counties where most are located, decreased in several cities, the Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga saw an increase in population that contributed to that city’s growth, according to the report.

California added about 186,000 residents last year, giving the state 39.9 million residents. Its birthrate is the slowest in state history. California had 18,000 fewer births than in 2017, according to the Finance Department.

The report also showed that wildfires drove an exodus from hard-hit California cities last year, shifting tens of thousands of residents from Paradise, Redding and Malibu to other communities.